In general, cellular systems using licensed spectrum (e.g., 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems) and wireless local area networks (WLANs) using unlicensed bands of spectrum (e.g., Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) or other local access) are used for providing wireless services in a complementary manner. Cellular systems generally provide macro cellular coverage outdoors and with some in-building reach, whereas WLANs generally serve enterprises, residences, public venues, and the like.
The overlap between coverage areas of the cellular systems and WLANs is expected to increase over time. Unfortunately, however, there are currently no existing solutions for automatically managing cellular and WLAN links to distribute load among these different technologies.